Rashee Rice made history on trick-play TD. The Chiefs had never practiced it this way
Rashee Rice looked at teammate Jerick McKinnon in the huddle, then saw him mouth a single word right after the play-call.
“Pitch.”
Rice nodded. They were about to go off script.
And this is the first part you need to know about the Kansas City Chiefs’ opening touchdown in their 27-17 victory over the New England Patriots:
They had never rehearsed it like this.
“Every time we practice it,” Rice said after the game, “we hand it off.”
That wasn’t going to happen this time, though — not with McKinnon taking the QB spot for the first-quarter Wildcat snap, and not following a previous conversation they’d had.
Rice entered Sunday one touchdown reception away from the Chiefs’ rookie record. And McKinnon figured, well, why not go ahead and turn a typical handoff into a short throw instead?
So when the running back went left after taking the shotgun snap, he tossed it ahead to Rice instead of handing it to him. The two made it work, even if it was a bit awkward; Rice nearly dropped the ball before finally pinning it to his hip.
“It was a little dicey there for a second,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said, “but we got in the end zone.”
Rice passed four different Chiefs players — including Tyreek Hill and current teammate Mecole Hardman — to take over sole possession of the rookie TD reception record with seven. Mahomes also retrieved the ball for him after the play so he could keep the historic memento.
“It’s great,” Rice said of the call. “I’m pretty sure that play’s gonna be getting taken by a lot of other teams.”
The reason? A whole lot of details went into its success.
And that included an assist from Mahomes.
Watch the replay, and you see that the Chiefs have an irregular alignment. They are overloading the left side and pulling a switcheroo: Left guard Joe Thuney snaps the ball instead of center Creed Humphrey.
Mahomes said he came up with that part of the design. He figured if the Chiefs swapped the roles of those two players, the defense might shift its attention away from the right side.
“They kind of pushed the D-line a little over thinking that Creed was the center,” Mahomes said of the Patriots. “So I didn’t make the play up, but I did that part.”
Meanwhile, Thuney — playing against his former team — said the last time he’d snapped a ball in an NFL game was here at Gillette Stadium. That was his final year with the Patriots three seasons ago, as he filled in at center for the team’s October 2020 home game against the Denver Broncos.
“Coach (Andy) Reid and our offensive coaches do a great job of making some unique plays,” Thuney said. “So just whatever they call that play, just try to get the snap right, get the good block, and the rest of the guys did a great job too.”
Humphrey was especially proud of Thuney afterward, saying his only bit of advice to him beforehand was to not think about the snap. Instead, just let the ball go.
“Loved it,” Humphrey said. “That was exciting, man.”
There were more fascinating details, too. With his hand on the turf, Mahomes lined up in a three-point stance for the first time in a game he could remember. He joked afterward that he hadn’t gotten in that position since running his 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.
The four-yard score also was a first for McKinnon, who had never thrown a touchdown pass during his eight seasons as a pro.
Rice told McKinnon afterward that it was the second straight year he had contributed to history. Late last season, McKinnon became the first running back in the Super Bowl era to catch a touchdown pass in five straight games.
On this day, though, McKinnon’s thoughts went to how he could help a teammate achieve his own milestone.
It all led to Sunday’s freelance — with the best of intentions.
“We really would have handed that ball off,” Rice said, “but Jet (McKinnon) got his passing yards, and I got my receiving touchdown.”
